Ambivalent attitudes toward older workers are to be found in society at large, in the organizations where they work, and among older workers themselves. This article explores the nature and scope of this ambivalence on these three levels and concludes that the primary need is for age neutrality in the workplace. It is at this level that interventions designed to enhance age neutrality are most feasible, resulting in improvements in the quality of aging as well as in the lives of workers of all ages. Several types of specific interventions are described and discussed, ranging from performance appraisals to postretirement employment opportunities.
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References
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1. Anne Foner and Karen Schwab, Aging and Retirement (Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1981).
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2. Joan M. Waring, “Social Replenishment and Social Change,”American Behavioral Scientist, 19:237-256 (1975).
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3. Open-window plans offer eligible workers an enriched retirement or separation package if they volunteer to retire or resign within a specified time period—within a window. Open-window plans are typically part of a reduction-in-force effort.
4.
4. We have examined this phenomenon else-where. See Harris T. Schrank and Joan M. Waring, “Aging and Work Organizations,” in Aging in Society: Selected Reviews of Recent Research, ed. Matilda White Riley, Beth B. Hess, and Kathleen Bond (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1983), pp. 53-70.
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7. For a review of the scientific evidence on age and aging and for an extensive bibliography, see Matilda White Riley, Anne Foner, and Joan M. Waring, “Sociology of Age,” in Handbook of Sociology, ed. Neil J. Smelser (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988), pp. 243-290.
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